The Invasion (3 page)

“Hi,” we all said back.

To my surprise, the alien staggered. He fell out of the ship to the ground. Tobias tried to grab him and hold him up, but the alien slipped from his grasp and fell back to the dirt.

“Look!” Cassie cried. She pointed at a burn that
covered half the alien’s right side. “He’s hurt.”

Yes. I am dying,
he said.

“Can we help you? We can call an ambulance or something,” Marco said.

“We can bandage that wound,” Cassie said. “Jake, give me your shirt. We can tear it up and make bandages.” Cassie’s parents are both veterinarians and she’s totally into animals. Not that this was an animal. Not exactly, anyway.

No. I will die. The wound is fatal.

“NO!” I cried. “You can’t die. You’re the first alien ever to come to Earth. You can’t die.” I don’t know why I was so upset. I just knew that way down deep inside, it hurt me to think of him dying.

I am not the first. There are many, many others.

“Other aliens? Like you?” Tobias demanded.

The alien shook his big head slowly, side to side.
Not like me.

Then he cried out in pain, a silent sound that echoed horribly inside my mind. For a moment, I had actually
felt
him dying.

Not like me,
he repeated.
They are different.

“Different? How?” I said.

I will remember his answer forever.

He said,
They have come to destroy you.